The design by Lynn Appleby is contemporary, but the plan behind the glass and steel is actually traditional. 'It's a classic Georgian home – though it's a modern loft version of it," says owner Alan Saskin. The family enjoys gathering in the great room, where they can set up tables that accommodate 45 people for dinner. The 50-foot-long room has ceilings 17 feet high.

For an engagement party, guests gathered in the great room, and an orchestra set up in the loft. The centre hall runs from the front entry to the back garden, leading to a four-storey glass and aluminum tower, which contains the staircase of steel and limestone. The staircase leads to the second floor and its rolled steel and limestone catwalk. The catwalk, set on steel girders, floats above the main floor and gives access to the rooms on the second floor.

The family decided that the interior of the 6,000-square-foot house would provide the perfect backdrop for their art collection. Still, the spare white interior contained so much glass and steel that the couple thought it needed some softening. In addition to their paintings and sculpture, they added warm maple built-ins and lots of lighting.

The modern kitchen has sliding glass doors that open to the exterior and create the feeling of dining alfresco.

Most of the rooms in the house provide views to the back garden and its 30-foot-long salt water swimming pool. Privacy walls of hand-crafted stainless and powder-baked steel surround the property. Indiana Limestone slab walkways border the gardens and columnar oaks. The pool is a draw for guests of all ages, says the owner, who often holds parties in the garden while coloured lights create a show on the pool's surface and on the water falling from a dramatic modern waterfall.